Calder

Congratulations John! Your climbs are an inspiring to me. Now lets see some more pics!

Very Nice! See you next month bro, maybe you can throw a rope on it for me?

Either way a ban on fixed anchors in the CSP would suck. The flyer brings up a lot of good points to bring up to the DNR, but so does John. I think figuring out the reason why they are proposing this ban is essential information to have before proposing a rebuttal. Any and all communication to the "authorities" needs to come from a unified voice of climbers. It needs to be well thought out, and offer ways forward that appeal to both parties. If the reaseon for the ban IS that the DNR is angry about retro bolting, then this issue needs to be adressed to them in a way that shows the climbing community in Anchorage is concerned as well. How can we show the DNR we are concerned about our environmental impact (even if they aren't)? Any anchors will be camoflaged, efforts will be made to mininmize fixed anchors, climber information campaigns, etc. All of that stuff that we should be doing anyways needs to be imparted to them. Anyone know if the AF has been contacted yet? They're pretty good at this stuff...

Nice ticks. It's always fun climbing with Craig. I need to get there soon. Craig and I had a go at Cleo's last year and I'd love to go back and finish it. Who led Airborne Ranger? Mad props to whoever it was!

Deep CReek doesn't suck. There are a lot of very fun, steep routes. Being a sport area there is a certain amount of reinforced holds and what not, but if you like steep, pumpy climbing the place is sweet. That said, McClellan is my personal favorite in town. Tons of great bouldering and sport climbing, and a good selection of tough trad lines. Wish I didn't have to work this Wednesday...

Trip: Sawtooths, Elephants Perch - Date: 8/19/2010 Trip Report: This place is pure shit. The rock is more rotten than Courtney Love's hoohoo, the camping might as well be in a homeless shelter, the lakes are stagnant and smell like a kiddie pool, and the approach makes the worst Cascades bush-wack seem like an all-nighter with The Girls Next Door. We did several routes on this pile and a new one on a lesser formation, but it started out poor and got worse as we went higher. Seriously folks there is absolutely no reason to visit this truly awful and atrocious place. There is nothing new left to do here and it wouldn't be any fun even if there were. Check out our vid if you need evidence, but be warned... [video:youtube] Approach Notes: Don't come here

I was there last June and can point you in the right direction. Gev me a few days as I'll working for a bit, but my email is calderjp@gmail.com. I can send some pics as well if you want. The place is so much fun. Get ready for a great trip!

Funny TR Joe!

Nice Job. I love that wall, it's so much fun. I was wondering how it was coming this year. Thanks for posting.

Selkirk, I went out there yesterday pretty much knowing what I'd find. The Devil's Punchbowl area was still in but getting thin in places and very wet. The deathcicles have mostly broken off, but a big came off while we were there, not a safe route. Wangchung, climbing under deathcicles is dangerous, not shooting them.

Selkirk, I tried to shoot the big one off once, with a 30-06 as a matter of fact, and it was indeed early in the morning. Two shots did nothing to it. Later in the day however, while doing a TR lap on the punchbowl it did come off. No one was hurt but I nearly had to buy some new pants. Next time I'll bring a .300 and I won't stop till it's gone. Ammo is just so expensive these days. Hawkeye, I may be going there this friday. If I do i'll post up conditions on this thread.

Arden, nice! Wish I could've gone with you guys to finish it up. Going to Leavenworth this weekend if you're interested.

I'll be leaving Spokaloo tomorrow morning for the detour. If anyone from this regiona is thinking of heading down you can ride with me if wanted/needed. I don't have a solid partner for the weekend so hit me up. I lead.

I also intend to head down tomorrow morning from Spokane. If anyone here needs a ride let me know.

Fun TR Arden, you F-ing liberal.

I got to play with it at the OR show this year. It felt seemed like they kinda copied the Nomic, only this seemed to have a slightly different swing. It felt a little heavier than the Nomic to me. I've been wanting a set of Nomic's for several years now and I think I'm still going to go with them. They swing great for me. Count me in on the Bozeman carpool!

I've had a pair of the Genesis for at least 4 years and have abused the shit out of them on rock and ice and they're still going strong. I love those ropes. I like them because they're not so crazy skinny that I feel super comfortable using only one as a glacier rope or for moderate ridge traverses and such. I'll definitely get another set when these finally crap out on me.

Shapp, second the dirty cracks at Rocks of Sharron. If you want to plug gear got Minnehaha or to McClellan. Some of the cracks can be a little dirty at McClellan, but there are a lot of great lines and some open projects as well. Sport Trad and great bouldering. Hit me up when you come out. If I'm around I'll climb with you.

All the way to the pass!

Longshanks, Thanks,we didn't find your knife. sorry to hear about that. Spotly, The temps were very warm. If you plan on sleeping on the route, I think you could get by with a very light bag or no bag at all. Ask Longshanks though, I believe they spent the night on it.

Rocky Joe, I can't make em bigger. The dimensions are too big so the post would look like crap. You'd have to keep scrolling to the right. If you click on the photos though it will take you to a bigger version.

Trip: Boston Basin - Torment-Forbidden Traverse Date: 7/4/2009 Trip Report: I've been wanting to do this climb for a long time now. I've actualy been up to the basin with the intent of climbing it twice, but events conspired against me. After searching for a partner for the weekend I was contacted by Craig ( Alpine Monkey). He said he'd never been to Boston Basin so I suggested the TFT. He was game and we decided to try it single push, car to car. We arrived at the trailhead late Friday and tried to get a few hours of sleep but it wasn't easy. We left at 1:00am and were in the basin in about an hour and a half, making our way over to Mount Torment. We decided to do the Southeast Face as I had been partway up it before. The berg was big and steep so we passed it on the left via this blank corner. Craig soloed it using some crazy stemming and reachy moves. After following him I decided right then that he is a diseased young man, but he got us past the berg. Click on the thumbs to view a larger pic. The first pitch of the Southeast Face. We cruised to the top of Torment and were on the summit at 6am. We downclimbed to the notch, made the rap to the snow and started heading east. We moved on snow, then on rock, climbing up to the snow traverse. It was pretty mushy, even though it was only 8am. There was about a foot and a half to two feet of snow over ice. There were a few spots where someone had cleared the snow down to the ice to get in screws. I imagine in a few weeks or so this will be mostly ice. We gained the ridge again and started cruising on fun climbing and scrambling. The rock quality seemed to improve as we went along. We cruised up the classic West Ridge of Forbidden passing several friendly parties along the way. We hit the summit at 12:i5 and immediately began the East Ledges descent. We had some beta about the descent and tried to follow it but it made no sense once we were there. We wound up going back up to a notch on the East Ridge and after some shenanigans began rapping a gully on the south side of the peak. It took us to the snow and all was good. We got back to the car at 6:40pm for a round trip time of 18hrs and 40min, which I was pretty pleased with. After grabbing a buffalo burger at the restaurant in Marblemount we started driving. I dropped Craig at his ride in Orondo and made it the rest of the way to Spokane for a 25 hour "day" I really enjoyed this route. With fun climbing and scrambling, awesome exposure, some spicy bits and magnificent views the whole way this was a real treat. For me at least it was truly classic. The West Ridge was my first mountaineering experience, so it's always fun to go back there as well. Thanks Craig for tying in with me. Gear Notes: We brought four cams, a set of nuts, six slings and two cordalettes, wich for us was plenty. Yet again I blew the ass out my new pants; REI will be hearing from me!

I'm looking to to get out and do some climbing this weekend. Would be open to do almost anything. I'm thinking, Dragontail, N Ridge of Stuart, ranier, Torment-Forbidden, Bugaboos or the Winds. Something fun and somewhat long. Would prefer an experienced partner but I'll climb with anyone. Give me a call if you're available. I could leave Thurs night but need to be back in Spokanistan by 6 pm Monday. Thanks, John 316 644 4078 calderjp@gmail.com

It was 17 days total and thats what they gave us so we didn't argue. We ended up sending the two small ones back on our transfer and just crevassing the rest.

Trip: Little Swiss and The Ruth June 8 - 26th - Date: 6/9/2009 Trip Report: On the 8th Brian and I met in Anchorage for our first climbing trip to the Alaska Range. His friend knew a girl who offered to drive us from Anchorage to Talkeetna. We had a lot of gear to cram in one of the most interesting vehicles I've ever tavelled in. We had to tie the door shut and she brought us ear plugs for the oil pressure alarm that rang all the way to Talkeetna! Thanks Tabitha for getting us there! We sorted that night and were able to get in to the Pika the next morning. We got right to it and climbed the Lost Marsupial (III 5.8)on the south face of The Throne. It was a fun route, but we didn't get to the true summit. The snow was cold in rock shoes so we settled for the false summit and skied back to camp. The whole thing went pretty quick and was pretty enjoyable. The moonrise was sweet that morning. Approach to The Throne with Crown Jewel in the background. Back at camp with Lost marsupials behind Brian. The route goes up the low angle ridge of sorts to the left of the major gully splitting the south face. A few days later we skied over to the steep West face of the Throne to try to do something we hoped was new. We found an interesting looking line just to the right of the smaller of the two major rock scars on the face. We wound up bailing after a short first pitch. It went at about 5.10 or so, but the chimney part looked mighty tough. We got off the wall just ahead of the weather so that was good. The weather came in so the next day we climbed something behind the Munchkin that I have been told is called Little Arrapiles. We then tried to do the Munchkin via it's west ridge and turned around just below the summit. The Munchkin is the shorter? peak behind Brian. Those are the Trolls in the background. The next day brought more funky weather. We simuled the Middle Troll in just a few hours and summitted in a white out. Super fun, clean granite on the upper sections, lots of loose down low. The next day was clear so we had a go at a differnt line on the West face of The Throne. The first pitch had an anchor on it but it looked so good we had to do it. It was splitter 5.10 hands that ended too soon. The rock abruptly changed as we tried to push the route higher. It got wet and thin and the cracks disappeared. We only had knifeblade seams to work with and gave it a few tries but again we bailed. I have some good pics and some funny video but can't figure out how to load them up here. Maybe in the next couple of days. At the base The next day we got up very late and ran up the Plunger, an awesome little feature between The Throne and The trolls. We knew there was a 5.10 and 5.12 but that's all we really knew. I lead the first pitch up to the base of this amazing splitter, definitely the 12. It was .75 camalots almost the whole way. Brian has baby girl hands (compared to me anyways) and onsighted the thing! His hardest ever trad lead and trad onsight. The thumbstacks became to much for me about three quarters of the way up and I aided the next couple moves till I could get to a sweet finger crack near the top. Fun little summit. We skied back to camp and did margaritas and burritos with our new friends Jamie and Brendan. We got hammered and invented snow shovel/frisbee horsehoes, an incredibly fun game that got us through the many weather days to come. We didn't know it then, but this was to be the last good weather we'd see that stuck around for more than a few hours. Brendan and Jamie with the Plunger in the background. Our transfer day came and went and we squeaked out the next morning with Jamie and Brendan headed back to Talkeetna. We couldn't land at the Mountain House so we headed to Talkeetna with the boys. At first I wasn't too happy, but it worked out well. Brian and I were able to catch two meals, get a shower and restock on much needed booze and cigies. We were back in a plane that afternoon and at the Mountain house in no time. The Ruth! We drug our crap to the Stump camp, about 4 miles from the Mountain House. The next day we had a go at Goldfinger (IV 5.11) but got one pitch in before the weather came. We saw these bear tracks just under the tower about 150 yards from our camp. The weather stayed bad for a few days and we tried again, this time getting three pitches up before the snow started for reals. The third pitch was soaking, which sucked. The climbing was great though, man I want to do this route. A lot of awesome stemming and laybacking. The base of the route. It rained and snowed for the next four or five days and we knew we were fucked. The sled haul back to the mountain house turned epic when the wet heavy snow filled in the track and we lost the wands. In a total white out we could only see about 20 yards so we threw down the tent. About two hours later it cleared and we discovered that we were right where we wanted to be, almost. We stayed the night and got up early. It was freezing. I bent my shovel blade in half trying to chop out our deadmen from the now rock hard snow. We had to chop the glopped up snow from the previoous night off our skins. The tent poles wouldn't collapse. We pulled those heavy ass sleds back to the Mountain house (I will NEVER do that again) and hung out with our friends Nick, Nate and Lauren while we waited for TAT. Thanks for the hospitality guys! Overall it was an amazing trip! Many thanks to Danny from AAI. Dude, we were giddy when we went through the bag of food you left for us. Thanks again! Also Thanks to Brendan for giving us a place to stay and a ride in Anchorage. Best host I've ever had. We appreciate it! Our last day in A town we climbed at the good vibes wall along the seward. Brian asked me to put this up otherwise it wouldn't be here. I have more pics but a lot of them wouldn't load up. ANyone looking for beta about these places feel free to contact me and I'll tell you what I know. Gear Notes: Knob Creek, Makers, Jose and Lagavulin. Good olives, nicotine and Gallo Salame. Broke one North Face tent Pole, left two nuts and 4 pins. Bootyed one BD #12 nut. Approach Notes: TAT Baby!